19

19
7/15/13

Both of my parents are from Iowa.  I still have two uncles that live in Iowa, one from each side of the family.  My mom’s brother that lives there owns a winery.  He grows grapes on his land and makes wine out of them.  Many people scoff at the idea of wine made in Iowa, but it was a dream of his.  My uncle worked at a factory job until he could retire, then spent all of his retirement on building his vineyard and all the wine manufacturing equipment.  He has been running it for several years now.  To try and promote his wine he shows new release movies via projector onto the side of a giant building he has on his land.  He serves food and of course wine along with the movie.  He also promotes at various vendor fairs and the local supermarkets.  I have had the wine several times, and while I am not a wine connoisseur, I think it’s pretty good stuff.  I am not a huge drinker, but I drink socially, and wine is one of my favorites.  It’s pretty impressive that my uncle was able to go for his dream of owning the vineyard, flying in the face of doubt and mockery.  He is an incredibly calm person also.  I remember when I was probably about eight years old, I was visiting him with my mom, and he was working on something around the house.  He asked me to toss him a hammer that was nearby, so I did.  Except that I tossed the hammer overhand instead of underhand, and hit him directly in the forehead.  He was not injured luckily, but I felt awful right away.  I wasn’t trying to hurt him or even be funny, I just “tossed” him the hammer.  Instead of being upset though, he just calmly told me to always throw it underhanded if somebody asked for a hammer tossing in the future.